Euronews

Fragments of the Meridian communications satellite crashed back to earth, by coincidence landing on a road named Cosmonaut Street.

Some parts caused the roof of a house at Vagaitsevo in the region of Novosibirsk to cave in.

Russia’s space programme has had a disastrous year. Three rockets have failed to reach orbit in the last 12 months.

Space officials say a brain drain following the fall of the Soviet Union is still being felt today.

“The space programme is in crisis and the lack of specialists is our main problem,” said Vladimir Popovkin, Head of the Russian Space Agency.

He told euronews: “A lot of young scientists emigrated in the nineties. Therefore, we do not have as many top space experts aged around 30-40 years old today.”

Meanwhile, one recent Russian rocket launch has been successful. A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three astronauts arrived at the International Space Station last week, bringing the orbital outpost back to a full headcount.